CAMELOT FANTASIES

We call them Crawfish, Ditchbugs, Crawdads, Mudbugs, or Louisiana lobsters - but for the love of a spicy tail - never call them crayfish! That's just wrong! Sinfully wrong and usually spills out of the mouth from individuals who hail from north of the Mason-Dixon line where they likely pronounce pecan: pee-can!

If there is one food synonymous to Louisiana, it's crawfish. Our state harvests approximately 120 million pounds in a typical season. It is a staggering number even when you consider this yield comes from over 100,000 acres of crawfish pounds, and from our vast natural wetlands like the Atchafalaya Basin. And consider this: the Atchafalaya stretches over an impressive one million acres, snaking through fourteen of Louisiana's sixty-four parishes from the Gulf of Mexico north to Avoyelles parish.

A popular saying in Louisiana: 'suck the heads and pinch the tails' or how to properly eat crawfish. Once you separate the head from the tail, you suck the head to enjoy the succulent fat and the peppery juices that collect there from the boiling process. Grasping the bottom tip of the tail while using your teeth to pull the flesh out of the shell requires a bit of skill, dexterity, and practice. Trust me - it's worth the effort to learn how to pinch a tail correctly!

Before the onslaught of the inferior Chinese crawfish a few years ago, Louisiana fishermen supplied 90% of the world's crawfish. In the early 1980's I worked for foreign owned export company as their head of personnel. It was a brilliant operation with a "secret" dill sauce splashed over huge, steam-cooked, 15-count crawdads, and flash-frozen in nitrogen freezing tunnels. That product was shipped to Scandinavian countries for the astounding price of $ 25.00 per pound. A tidy profit considering the fisherman raked in $.65 per graded pound and facilities like ours exported 14 million pounds of crawfish each year!
Crawfish season in Louisiana usually runs from February to June, depending on the weather. Rainfall and warm temperatures mean an early and bountiful crop of feisty freshwater bottom-feeders. This year, for instance, we have enjoyed boiled crawfish beginning in early January.

If you live in south Louisiana and plan on hosting a crawfish boil, you know it is going to be a glorious day. You may have read Creole recipes that begin: "First, you start with a roux…" Usually, that is true in preparing an authentic south Louisiana dish, but not so for boiled crawfish. First, you start with beer! When I boil crawfish, I always drink a beer. I'm not a big beer drinker, I prefer wine, but crawfish means beer drinking. It also means seasoning - lots of spicy pepper, hence my desire for beer! A pot big enough to accommodate a 30 pound sack of crawfish is heavy when it's full of boiling water. Get men to help - again, beer makes enlisting said men an easy task! Commercial bagged seasoning, salt, lemons, garlic, onions, corn-on-the-cob and red potatoes are standard ingredients in the pot. I also add whole carrots, asparagus, whole mushrooms, and sometime sausage links. Because only about 15% of the crawdad is edible, thirty pounds is enough to feed six people. A crawfish boil is a day-long event when all of your family and friends are invited - a happy and unique party - a laid-back gathering with good food, great company and cold beer!
Interested in Crawfish Recipes? Leave me a comment! Have a blessed day!